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LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE 

Newspaper Interview 
with 

MRS. FRANCES WALLACE 

Springfield, Illinois 



SEPTEMBER 2, 1895 




Prwatelp Printed, 1917 






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MRS. FRANCES WALLACE 



Sister of Mrs. Lincoln Talks of Domestic 

Matters 



Says There is No Truth in the Statements That Lincoln's 
Home Life Was Unhappy 

One of the most interesting interviews about Lincoln ever 
published was that obtained with Mrs. Frances Wallace of 
Springfield, 111., a sister of Mrs. Lincoln. This interview is re- 
garded as having especial value because it is opposed to previous 
publications to the efifect that Lincoln's home life was unhappy. 
Here is the way the newspaper man says Mrs. Wallace told her 
story : 

"I came here in 1 83T to visit my married sister, Mrs. Ninian 
Edwards. Her given name was Elizabeth. Both she and her 
husband are now dead. My father had quite a large family at 
home in Lexington, Ky., and Lizzie wanted me to stay with her. 
She said she needed me more than they did at home, and so T 
stayed here. 

'M often heard Mr. Edwards speak of Mr. Lincoln, and one 
time I told him : 'You are always talking of this Mr. Lincoln. 
I w4sh you would bring him down some time and let me see him.' 
So Mr. Edw^ards had him come down, and that is the way I met 
him. Yes, he took me out once or twice, but he was not much 
for society. He would go where they took him, but he was 
never very much for company. I don't think he could be callerl 
bashful. He was never embarrassed, that I saw, and he seemed 
to enjoy ladies' company. But he did not go much, as some of 
the other young men did. 



"He liked music, although in all my life 1 never heard him 
attempt to sing. No, I never heard him whistle, that I can re- 
member. 1 don't know whether he could or not. But he liked 
to hear the piano, and he liked to hear us sing. My sister had a 
good piano. Mr. Edwards was quite prosperous and lived in 
very good style. My sister liked society, and gave a good many 
parties, considering that early day. 

"I got acquainted with Mr. Wallace. He had come out 
from Pennsylvania, and he had some money, and he had been out 
in Iowa speculating. He stopped here on his way back and 
speculated some in property here. And then the Pennsylvania 
men wanted him to locate here, and so he did. And he and I kept 
company quite a while, and then we were married. My sister, 
Mrs. Edwards, gave us quite a big wedding. I was married in a 
white satin dress, I remember, and the invitations were printed, 
and it was quite an affair. 

"At first we boarded for about a year, and then we went to 
keeping house. Mr. Wallace had opened a drug store. He didn't 
mtend to practice medicine at first, but his friends wanted him 
to, and so he got to going out among their families, and so he got 
into the practice. And after we were married my sister Mary 
came out from Lexington to stay with ]\Irs. Edwards, just 
the same as I had done before I was married. And she staioi 
there only a little while till she and Mr. Lincoln got ac- 
quainted. And a year after I was married, they were married. 
They w^ere married in 1842, Nov. 4th. 

"No, they didn't have a big wedding at all. As soon as 
Mrs. Edwards knew they wiere engaged, she wanted to give 
them a big wedding just the same as she had me, but they 
were both opposed to it. They both wanted a simple, private 
wedding. So they wouldn't tell any one when they were to 
be married. They just went along together, and then one 
Sunday morning Mr. Lincoln came down to Mr. Edwards' 
house, and he and Mary were out on the front porch, and then 
they told Mrs. Edwards that they were going to be married 
that night. 



''She was terribly disappointed, for she could not i^et up 
a dinner in that short time. It was Sunday, and Sprini^tiel i 
was a very small town at the time, and she hardly knew what 
to do. But they would not have it any other way, so she 
wrote a note to me, and told me they were to (3e married that 
night, and asked me if 1 could help her. So I worked all day. 
1 never worked harder all day in my life. And in the evening 
they were married, and we had a very nice little supper, but 
not what we would have had if they had given Airs. Edwards 
time. 

"Only a few^ people were there, for there was no time to 
prepare for a large company. 1 remember the minister, Mr. 
Dresser, did not know of the ceremony in time to announce 
to his morning congregation that there would be no service 
in the evening, so he had to go down there to the church in 
the evening and hold a short service, and then come up to 
Mr. Edwards' house and marry them. Mr. Herndon says in 
his history that the wedding was a grand afifair, and that there 
were several hundred 'invitations printed, and that some one 
stood up with Mr. Lincoln, and that Mrs. Lincoln wore a 
white silk dress, but I know she never had a white silk dress 
in her life till she went to Washington to live. 

"After I was married I gave her my white satin dress and 
told her to wear it till it got soiled, but then to give it back 
to me, for I w^anted to keep all things like that — my weddinc, 
dress, you know. No, she was not married in the white satin. 
It was too soiled. She may have been married in a white 
Swiss muslin, but I think it was not a white dress at all. I 
think it was delaine, or something of that kind. 

"After that they boarded a while, and then they went to 
housekeeping. I don't see why people should say Mr. Lin- 
coln's home life was not happy, for I certainly never saw a 
thing there that w^ould make me think either of them was un- 
happy. He was devoted to his home, and Mrs. Lincoln 
thought everything of him. She almost worshiped him. Why, 
she need not have married him if she had not wanted to. She 
could have married Mr. Douglas, I have no doubt. She had 



.o^one with Mr. Douglas to several places. They were very 
v/ell acquainted, and were very good friends. 

*'And Mr. Lincoln was not compelled to marry Mary. He 
had hecome quite a promising young man, and we w^ere all 
proud of him. He could have married any other girl, no doubt, 
if he had wanted to. But they did not lead an unhappy life at 
all. Why, she was devoted to him and to her children. And 
he was certainly all to her that any husband could have been. 

**He was the most tender hearted man I ever knew. I 
have seen him carry Tad half way to the office, when Tad was 
a great big boy. And I said to him once : 'Why, Mr. Lin- 
coln, put down that great big boy. He's big enough to 
walk.' And he said : *Oh, don't you think his little feet get 
too tired ?' " 

Tears were standing in the kindly little old lady's eyes 
as she told of this incident. Her whole manner was so simple 
and unaffected ; she seemed so really to be living those dis- 
tant scenes ; her white hair and her gentle manner so plainly 
marked her the lady that it was like a benison to sit by her, 
and hear the truthful tongue run on. 

"They say that he had an afifair with a young woman at 
Salem, and that he broke off one wedding with Mary because 
he was half distracted with love for his other girl. But he 
did not break off one wedding. The Wedding I tell you about 
was the only w^edding that was arranged. 1 would have 
known of it if there had been another. And there 
never was another. He may have offered himself to 
that other girl. I don't know anything about that. He 
and Mary may have had a lover's quarrel for all I know. 
lUit I certainly saw him the night he was maried, and he was 
not distracted with grief, or anything else. He was cheerful 
as he ever had been, for all we could see. He acted just as 
he alw^ays had in company. No; no one stood up with him. 
Just he and Mary stood up alone, and Mr. Dresser married 
them. 

"No one but members of the family were there, or almost 
none. As I remember it there was Mr. and Mrs. Ninian Ed- 



wards, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Edwards, Major Stuart and his wife. 
Mr. and Mrs. Dresser, Dr. Todd's family, and Mr. Wallace 
and myself. I don't think there was anyone else there. There 
couldn't have been more than one or two more. 

"And then they say that Mrs. Lincoln was an ambitious 
woman. But she was not an ambitious woman at all. She 
was devoted to her home. She was one of the best seam- 
stresses I ever knew. She made all her clothes and her chil- 
dren's clothes ; and they were better made than most anyone 
else's. It was before the day of sewing machines, you know, 
and all her work had to be done by hand. And they always 
looked Vv^ell. 

''After Mr. Lincoln was elected President, he appointed 
Dr. Wallace a paymaster in the regular army, and stationed 
him first at Washington, but that was so far away from home 
that he asked to be removed to St. Louis, and so he w^as 
moved there. And he could come up and see us when he wanted 
to. He retained the office till his death. 

"No, it was as I tell you. There never was but one wed- 
ding arranged between Mary and Mr. Lincoln, and that was 
the time they w-ere married. And they certainly did live hap- 
pily together — as much so as any man and woman I have 
ever known." 



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